Status of Curriculum Mapping of Undergraduate Medical Programmes in South Africa

Gerda C Botha,Adegoke O Adefolalu

doi:10.24018/ejmed.2020.2.3.284

Abstract

Curriculum mapping in medical education allows for quick determination whether the curriculum meets the required standards and if its contents are aligned with the learning outcomes. This ensures the curriculum stays relevant, producing graduates capable of addressing the health needs of the institution’s host community. The status of curriculum mapping of the undergraduate medical programmes in South African medical schools was not documented in the literature at the time of this research. This study aimed to describe the current status of curriculum mapping of undergraduate medical programmes in South Africa. A qualitative study was conducted among the academic managers from all the eight medical schools in 2015. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from fourteen participants who were purposefully sampled, and data analysis was done by inductive thematic analysis after coding and verbatim transcriptions. None of the medical schools had a fully developed mapping platform, however they all possessed various guides and matrices that contained components of their curricula which were mainly used for accreditation purposes. In addition, they all had strategies in place for reviewing their curricula, although some of the institutions were at different stages of developing their own mapping platforms. The challenges described by the institutions as barriers to curriculum review appeared to be related to lack of a proper curriculum mapping process. In conclusion, curriculum mapping was in infancy stage at the time of this research in South Africa, the medical schools that were in the process or about to develop electronic mapping platforms had no uniform outcome framework. Future research on the features of the mapping platforms developed by all the institutions is highly recommended.

Highlights

Curriculum mapping is a visual representation of the different components of the curriculum and is an essential tool of curriculum management that enables the linking of complex, student-centred competencies with course-specific and well-defined objectives [1]─[2]
The interviews centred on stage at which construction of a curriculum map was at the participant's institutions, the elements considered important to a mapping platform, benefits of building maps and challenges associated with curriculum map at respondent's medical school
With the call for greater social accountability among medical schools getting global recognition; the benefits of tailoring medical education to the need of the community that an institution is mandated to serve cannot be overemphasized [13], [19]. It is the responsibility of the medical schools to ensure that their curricula are well aligned such that they produce doctors with professional attributes who share in the social accountability vision of the university and are prepared to address the health needs of their community

Summary

Introduction

Curriculum mapping is a visual representation of the different components of the curriculum and is an essential tool of curriculum management that enables the linking of complex, student-centred competencies with course-specific and well-defined objectives [1]─[2]. In addition to the above, curriculum mapping has been shown to be useful in the integration of various stages in medical education programmes in such a way that the exit level outcomes of one phase become the entry requirements for the next. Mapping is crucial in the quality assurance strategies used in curriculum management of medical programmes, it determines the students' outcome competencies and the required changes to the curriculum, which enables the curriculum contents to be aligned with the outcomes [4]─[6]. When curriculum content is not aligned with the outcome, the programme outcome-competencies will not translate into graduate attributes expected of the programme [9]. Some medical accreditation bodies have made curriculum mapping a requirement for accreditation purposes with emphasis on its use in curriculum's quality improvement initiatives. The current research was aimed at exploring the status of curriculum mapping of medical programmes at undergraduate level in South African universities

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Discussion

Conclusion